In various therapy applications, a selected therapy can be applied to a patient to achieve a selected result or therapeutic effect. The therapeutic effect can include orally administering a pharmaceutical, such as a pain inhibitor, to reduce pain felt by a patient. Other pharmacological treatments can include delivery intravenously of selected drugs, such as chemotherapy drugs and other selected pharmacological agents. Generally, a pharmaceutical can be delivered orally or intravenously to the anatomy of the patient but are not delivered directly to the area of interest within the patient.
Various procedures, however, may be selected for efficiency or specific regions of activation. For example, deep brain stimulation (DBS) probes can be introduced into a patient to stimulate selected and specific regions of a brain. In patients diagnosed with Parkinson's, DBS probes can be implanted into the brain to stimulate a selected region of the brain to reduce Parkinson's symptoms. A region of activation can be determined based on electrical properties introduced through the DBS probe. The electrical properties, however, are dependent upon the input of electrical parameters, such as pulse width and voltage, into the tissue of the brain. Such therapies do not deliver a material from the probe, but rather only stimulate the neurological tissue with an electrical signal.
In some instances, intrathecal delivery catheters are known to deliver a drug, such as the muscle relaxant and antispastic sold as LIORESAL®, with a drug pump. Drug pumps include the SYNCHROMED® II pump sold by Medtronic, Inc. The drug can be delivered by a catheter to a patient.